Grimind Review (PC)

How should one describe the Grimind? The first thing that you see is this message: “ATTENTION: For best experience, play at night, in a dark room, with your headphones on. Be careful, explore everything, don’t die, have “fun”.”

I followed the instructions hoping that it would create a more “magical” atmosphere and get me more involved in the game.

Grimind is a 2D physics-based platform game that tries to create a horror atmosphere.

Once you start you will see your main character: a small creature, which reminded me of a troglodyte. You do not know where you are; you have no memories or a clear idea what you have to do. So I guessed, lets go and see where the game will take me. There is a set course of actions that you have to take in order to manage to go to the next level (fifteen chapters in total) and finally to escape.

Grimind has very basic and straightforward controls, using only W,A,S,D and the two buttons on your mouse, which is great. The menu of the game is clear and easy to work with, giving you all the essential information that you need in a Help menu.

The first level is where the problems began. Although the controls are easy to remember, it is quite hard to manipulate your character and bearing in mind that this is a platform game, it is very frustrating when you are unable to be precise with your jumps. You get used to the handling of the character after a while though, and the games platforming physics are solid once you get used to them.

As one of a wave of physics based platformers, much of your progress involved moving objects and using them to get through the obstacles in the game world. You can pick things up and throw them around using the right mouse button, and this is the most common way you solve the early puzzles. While this is basic enough, when you are doing this while being chased by the games terrifying enemies its a lot of fun. The games use of lighting and atmosphere help here.

Grimind can be a difficult game and no matter how long I practised I kept dying in the most awkward places. I found it most enjoyable in short bursts. Playing for over fifteen minutes, the frustration begins to outweigh the rewards the game offers.

All in all, I can clearly see that the designers of Grimind have thought a lot about the central horror theme of the game and the atmospheric music. Horror is a hard genre to get right in a platform game, but with its brilliantly atmospheric music, creaking sound effects and good use of lighting Grimind does a good job of making you scarred while you jump from platform to platform.